Note: The following excerpt is from Historical Building Survey
for the Minneapolis Model City, 1971,
a report commissioned by the Minneapolis Model City Housing Bureau,
coordinated by Charles W. Nelson.

Today Park Avenue speedily channels thousands of cars down its
one-way lanes to the Central City. If the motorists are lucky, they
may not even have to interrupt their progress for a traffic light.
Its hard to imagine this busy thoroughfare in any other way.
Yet this street holds the heritage of ninety years of Minneapolis
history, encompassing the idyllic, elegant lives of some of Minneapolis
pioneer aristocracy.

Park Avenue did not acquire its aristocratic status until the late
1880s. Prior to this time it was more of a rural road than
a city street. Reference is made to E.R. Barber who built a big
house in the country at 2313 Park Avenue in 1885.(1) There
was little settlement past this point. In fact William Dunwoody,
who lived on Lowry Hill, had the neighborhood boys drive his cows
from his estate to pasturelands at 25th Street and Park Avenue.(2)

The fine residential districts of Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Streets
were gradually being overrun by Minneapolis growing business
district, and Park Avenue eagerly took their place. The distinction
of a Park Avenue address was actively sought and by 1889 a Minneapolis
trade booklet boasted, Park Avenue is noted for the many beautiful
homes that adorn it and ranks as the finest residence street in
the city.(3) By 1890 heavy settlement had extended to Lake
Street with scattered homes as far as 34th Street.(4) The area from
20th to 26th Streets commanded the greatest number of the large
mansion-type homes.

What was life like on Park Avenue then? If you lived on Park around
1890 you shared the company of some of Minneapolis leading
citizens. There was James E. Bell, valued cashier at Hennepin County
Savings Bank, living at Park and 24th. His house was noted for its
elaborately oil painted walls. E.J. Phelps, Secretary-Treasurer
for the Minnesota Loan and Trust Company, had his home on Park adjoining
J.E. Bell near 24th. Farther down Park at 26th lived A.J. Sawyer,
the Grain Commissioner. The Sumner McKnights made their home
at 2200 Park. Built in 1891, it held the dubious distinction of
being insulated with the manes and tails of 20,000 horses.(6) Almost
every major business of concern was represented on Park Avenue,
from millers and lumbermen to newspaper publishers.

A view down Park around the turn of the century would have revealed
a scene of fine velvet lined coaches or sleighs pulled by matched
horses. Cyclers by the dozens would be darting down the street with
a wary eye out for a policeman who might enforce the 10- mph speed
limit. Children of the area might be walking down the boulevard
on their way to the Geo. Peavey home at 2210 to attend dancing class,
telling stories of how the artisans for Swan Turnblads strange
castle at 2600 Park were led blindfolded to and from their jobs
each day so they never saw the total product and could never be
able to duplicate it anywhere in the world.(7) If a circus were
in town the children would be lined up to see the elephants marching
down the avenue. And if the year were 1899 you could see the grandstand
Mr. Barber had built in front of his home to honor the parading
13th Minnesota Regiment after the Spanish-American War.(8)

The residents along Park Avenue were extremely public-spirited
and socially conscious people. They had organized the Park Avenue
Improvement Association around 1890 to deal with community problems.
It was this organization which levied taxes of 10 cents per lineal
foot, on themselves for the purpose of having the street swept each
night. They were the people who originated the building set-back
of 56 feet and made Park Avenue 100 feet wide (although they had
once tried to narrow it to 36 feet to lower costs and widen and
thereby beautify the boulevards). These citizens, much through their
own funds, got Park Avenue asphalt paved for two miles in 1892.
It was one of the first city streets to be so pavedeven before
Nicollet Avenue. The association was defunct from 1907 to Sept.
6, 1917 when it was renewed to repel damaging reports from outside
real estate men and protect the interests of Park Avenue home owners
therefore to perpetuate the fame of Park Avenue as a fine
residence district.(9) At this time they suggested to the
City Council several improvements to Park among them; better traffic
controls, arc lights and more policemen. The organization acted
as a community voice in public matters up until 1931 when it was
dissolved.

When the automobile was introduced, E.R. Barber purchased Park
Avenues first. He was not to hold the distinction long as
soon fine horseless-carriages became another symbol of Park Avenue
prestige and displaying them became a pasttime. In fact, in the
early 1900s, June 21st, the longest day of the year, was set
aside as a day to parade ones auto up and down Park Avenue.(10)

The advent of the automobile accompanied some other changes on
Park. Some of the earlier frame houses were being replaced by large
mansions of brick or stone. Some of the residents at that time were;
J.H. Queal, a lumberman whose house at 2708 Park was known for its
six car garage which had a turntable large enough to rotate his
new Packard.(11) O.C. Wymans house at 2500 Park boasted eight
baths and as many fireplaces. Wymans house and the C.M. Harrington
home at 2540 Park were noted for their splendid wooden paneling
and carving on the interior. The Anson S. Brooks family built the
last great house on Park Avenue at 2535 in 1921. The grand era of
Park Avenue was drawing to a close.

The deterioration of Park Avenues grandeur was a gradual
process. The functionality of a large mansion for a single-family
dwelling was being questioned as early as 1900. For reasons of economy
or convenience, some residents of the larger homes were shared by
more than one family. By 1910 almost half of the houses on Park
between Tenth and 26th Street were being used as multi-family dwellings.
Most of the houses from 26th on had been built on a more modest
scale and continued to be used as single family houses until recent
years when some were converted to apartment type dwellings.(12)

Today much of the Grand Style of Park Avenue architecture has been
replaced by modern commercial structures. Only about a dozen of
the old houses on Park between 20 and 28th exist today, and of these
but a handful are single family residences. The others have been
converted to business uses or taken over by social and community
organizations. But regardless of their present use they stand today
as living remembrances of the past and the grandeur that was once
Park Avenue.